They stopped at midday on a ridge overlooking rolling mountains and trackless valleys. Emily dug out her food supplies and filled her belly. No one on the team spoke, and Emily dared not break the silence. Gazing out at the view with her sweat evaporating on her face brought back the peace and kinship of the mountains. She hadn’t known it for years, but on this alien planet, she found it again as if she'd never left Earth.
They marched on and on and on until after dark. Faruk set down his pack in a grassy knoll by a murmuring stream, and his team set to work to build a camp. One man built a fire, and one prepared a meal. Three others set off into the trees with axes and constructed on the site a small but solid collection of huts made of bundles of reeds.
Emily sat on a rock and watched them. She would have helped if she knew what they wanted her to do, but each man knew his job without being told. She rested her legs instead.
Faruk went down to the stream, and when he came back, he sat down on the ground next to her. “You did very well today. I’m impressed.”
She shook her head. “Don’t be impressed. I can’t believe how weak and out of shape I am. I’m embarrassed. I don’t blame you for not wanting to bring me.”
“Considering what you’ve been through,” he replied, “you did very well. If I’d known you would be like this, I never would have objected to you coming.”
“I’ll do better tomorrow,” she told him.
“There won’t be a tomorrow,” he replied. “This is the border. We’re setting up camp here, and we’ll use this as a base to patrol the area for the next six months.”
Emily looked around. “It doesn’t look like much of a border.”
“No one uses the border areas between the factions,” he replied. “No one wants to get shot by accident.”
“How can you tell where the actual border is?” she asked.
“This stream feeds into another tributary farther down the hill,” he told her. “That stream is the actual physical border. When you know the terrains as well as we do, you know where you are in relation to it. But this is the closest we ever get to the actual border. It’s better to keep back and stay safe.”
She studied him. “Aria said you loved the mountains.”
He gazed at the sky. “I don’t know how anybody could live underground all the time. I would go crazy.”
“But you’re a medical man,” she pointed out. “You could be doing so much good working in the infirmary.”
He cocked his head. “If I did, I wouldn’t have been there to rescue you.”
She blushed. “That’s true. Thank you for that.”
“The infirmary doesn’t need me,” he went on. “They have the best doctors in the faction. A good border patrol officer is much more valuable to our faction than another doctor in the infirmary.”
“How can you stand all the fighting between the factions?” she asked.
“I don’t fight the other factions,” he replied. “When Donen takes the army out to fight the other factions, we stay here. Somebody’s got to guard our borders.”
“Have you ever been in combat with the other factions?” she asked.
“I fought the Avitras when they attacked our city,” he replied. “That was a long, hard battle, and we needed every hand. We fought for our very lives. Even the women and cubs fought. The battle lasted three weeks, but we drove them back in the end.”
“Did you kill very many of them?” she whispered.
“Quite a lot of them,” he replied. “I wish I’d killed more. If they attack our city and threaten our families and cubs, then killing is too good for them. I even killed Aquilla’s brother. Aquilla was the younger brother, and his brother Erius was Alpha until I killed him in that battle. Then Aquilla became Alpha. I’m sure he still holds a vendetta against me for it.”
Emily shook her head. “All that killing.”
“And I fought the Lycaon,” he went on. “That was a long time ago now—maybe fifteen years ago. They invaded our territory, and my team got caught by surprise. They pinned us down, and we fought flat out to hold them back while one of our men went back to the city to raise the army. We lost half our patrol, but we held out until the army came and secured the border.”
Emily stared into the trees. “And there’s just one small stream between you and them? What’s to stop them invading again?”
“That was when old Rufus was Alpha,” he replied. “He’s dead now, and his son Caleb is Alpha. Caleb doesn’t value fighting. He saw enough of that under his father. Now that he’s Alpha, he wants his people to live in peace.”
“He sounds like my kind of guy,” Emily murmured.
Faruk nodded. “Mine, too. The more Alphas we get like him, the better.”
“Donen seems reasonable, too,” she remarked. “He didn’t want to fight the Felsite, but he had to. Now he’s going to make peace with Renier to avoid any further hostilities.”
“I only hope it works,” Faruk agreed.
“Why wouldn’t it?” she asked. “Wouldn’t all the Alphas want peace?”
He shrugged. “Don’t ask me how the Alphas think. I don’t want to be an Alpha.”
“But you’re commander of your team,” she pointed out. “That makes you an Alpha—sort of.”
“I’m not an Alpha,” he replied. “This team works together. If one of us thinks we ought to do something, we all listen and make a decision together.”
“You didn’t let them decide to bring me along,” she pointed out.
He chuckled. “I didn’t think you’d last the first day. I thought you’d give up after the first few hours and go back to the city.”
Chapter 4
Faruk and Emily stood on a hill overlooking a trickle of stream. “That’s it? That’s the dreaded border?”
Faruk nodded. “That’s it. Lycaon territory is on the other side.”
“How do we contact them?” she asked.
“We don’t contact them,” he replied. “I can’t go near the border. If you want to contact the Lycaon, you have to cross it yourself. I can’t help you.”
She took a step forward, but he stopped her. “Don’t do this.”
“Why not?” she asked. “I’m not Ursidrean. I’m not an enemy of the Lycaon.”
“But they don’t know that,” he replied. “They’ll see someone crossing their border, and they’ll assume you’re hostile. They might shoot you on sight.”
“How would they see us?” she asked. “There’s no one here.”
He narrowed his eyes. “They’re watching us right now. They never leave the border unguarded.”
She took another step. “I have to try. It’s the only way I can find my sisters.”
She strode down the hill and paused at the edge of the water. Nothing but trees and bushes and chirping insects stretched away into the woods on the other side. She took another step. A series of rocks poked up out of the stream bed to give her a path to the other side.
All at once, a creature with short hair running down the back of his head jumped out from behind a bush. He crouched on the other side of the river and pulled back his lips in a snarl at Emily. He wasn’t burly enough or hairy enough to be Ursidrean, and pointed ears stuck up out of his hair. He crouched on the bank and growled and hissed at Emily. She jumped back in surprise.
In a heartbeat, Faruk leapt down the hill and planted his legs in the grass at her side. He bared his teeth and bellowed at the stranger, and he raised his reciprocator to fire. The two men faced off in deadly confrontation, but neither crossed the stream.
Then another figure pushed back the branches and approached the border. Emily’s eyes widened in amazement when she recognized a human woman. Animal skins covered her for clothes, and dozens of braids hung down her back. She carried a thick staff in one hand and a short, curved blade in the other. She took a wide stance next to the pointed-eared man and glared across the border at Emily and Faruk.
“Stand down!” the woman shouted. “Step back from the b
order or we’ll attack.”
Faruk let out a deafening roar, and he surged toward the stream, but Emily jumped into his path and faced the woman. “I crashed here on a Romarie ship. It broke up in the atmosphere before it crashed in Lycaon territory, and I fell out in Ursidrean territory. Do you know the ship I mean?”
The woman frowned. “I was on that ship.”
Emily’s spirits soared, and she couldn’t stop herself from taking a step forward. “Two of my sisters and my cousin were on that ship. They crashed in Lycaon territory. I have to find them and make sure they’re safe. Can you help me?”
The woman glared at her. Then she muttered something under her breath to the man at her side. He growled back, but he didn’t attack. The woman lifted her staff and pointed it at Faruk. “Stand down. Back away from the border.”
Faruk didn’t move. The couple across the stream waited. No one moved a muscle. Emily took a deep breath. “Move back, Faruk.”
He pulled his lips back from his teeth in a menacing snarl, and the pointed-eared man growled back at him.
“Move back, Faruk,” Emily repeated. “We can’t negotiate with you two standing off. Move back, and they will move back, too.”
“They could attack the border,” Faruk argued.
Emily kept her eyes fixed on the woman and shook her head. “These people won’t harm us, and I can’t talk to the woman with you threatening each other like this. Step back.”
Faruk didn’t move, but the hair on the back of his neck laid down. Emily laid her hand on his arm. She didn’t say anything, but a light pressure of her hand was all she needed to move him back toward the hill. He stepped back and lowered his reciprocator.
The pointed-eared man stopped growling. The woman moved her staff in front of him and guided him back from the border. The two men retreated several paces and stopped. The woman pointed down the stream with her staff. “Follow me.”
She strode down the bank, and Emily matched her stride for stride. They passed out of sight of Faruk and his opponent to where the trees parted. A gravel bar extended through the middle of the stream with rivulets of water on either side of it.
The woman hooked her blade through her belt and shouldered her staff. She splashed through the water to the bar, and Emily copied her so they met in the middle of the stream. The woman smiled. “I’m Chris Sebastiani. It’s good to meet you.”
Emily extended her hand. “I’m Emily Allen. I’m glad it was you watching the border and not someone else. Our factions could be at war right now if you hadn’t been here.”
Chris waved her hand. “Don’t pay any attention to Turk. He’s all bark and no bite.”
Emily laughed. “You’re not in any danger from Faruk, either. He doesn’t want to fight anybody, but he takes his job of defending the border very seriously.”
“Never mind.” Chris waved her hand. “We can talk here. This bar isn’t in anybody’s territory, and we don’t belong to any faction. We’re human. We have a right to talk to each other.”
Emily laughed out loud. “I am so glad I found you! No one could understand why I need to cross the border but another woman. I guess that’s why Aria was so understanding.”
Chris cocked her head. “You know Aria?”
Emily started. “Do you know Aria?”
“I don’t know her,” Chris replied. “I’ve only heard of her. One of the women she landed with is mated to our Alpha.”
“Caleb?” Emily asked.
Chris nodded. “And another one, Carmen, is mated to the Felsite Alpha, Renier.”
Emily’s eyes widened. “Wow. They’re everywhere.”
“Not only them,” Chris replied. “Penelope Ann is mated to Aquilla, the Avitras Alpha.”
Emily glanced up the stream bed. “And you’re mated to that border guard, Turk.”
“Turk’s not a border guard,” Chris replied. “He’s Caleb’s twin brother.”
“What’s he doing out here guarding the border, then?” Emily asked.
“He isn’t guarding the border,” Chris replied. “We’ve been living in the wilderness for over a year. We’ve only been back to the village twice in all that time. We only came down to the border to have a look. Turk says there’s a special type of moss growing down here that we might use for something.”
“Where have you been living, if not in the village?” Emily asked.
Chris pointed to the mountain peak looming over them. “Up there.”
Emily lifted her face to the skies. “Why do you live up there? Don’t you want to live with your people?”
Chris chuckled. “Don’t ask me why. It just worked out that way. We... well, we just wanted to spend some time alone—alone with each other. We never went back. Don’t ask me why it just worked out that way.”
Emily studied her. “I think I understand.”
“So you want me to find your sisters and cousin for you?” Chris asked. “Tell me their names, and I’ll let them know where you are.”
Emily shook her head. “I have to see them for myself.”
Chris frowned. “You’ll have to come alone. You’ll have to leave your Ursidrean friends behind.”
Emily looked back over her shoulder. “I’ll ask Faruk. He took responsibility for me by bringing me out here. I wouldn’t want to ditch him now.”
Chris nodded. “Do it, then.”
Emily started to turn away. Then she paused. “Your mate, Turk... he won’t refuse to let me cross the border, will he? He might think an Ursidrean is invading his territory.”
Chris laughed. “Don’t worry about Turk. He’s a pussycat—or I should say a puppy dog. You aren’t Ursidrean. You’re human, and you’re looking for your human relatives—nothing more. How could he think you’re invading?”
Emily shrugged. “As long as you’re sure he’ll be okay, I trust you.”
“We were on our way back to the village anyway,” Chris went on.
“What for?” Emily asked. “Don’t you want to live on the mountain anymore?”
“I never want to leave the mountain,” Chris replied. “But we have some unfinished family business in the village. Turk wants to live near his family, and he was Caleb’s right hand man before he left. We have to go back, at least for a little while.”
Emily nodded and turned away. “I better go talk to Faruk.”
“I hope he’s not mad about you leaving,” Chris remarked.
“As a matter of fact,” Emily replied, “I think he’ll be relieved to get rid of me.”
Chapter 5
“What?!” Faruk bellowed so loud Emily jumped. “You can’t leave with them. I won’t let you.”
Emily bristled. “But they’re going to take me to my relatives. That’s the whole reason I came out here.”
“You can’t go with them,” Faruk thundered. “It isn’t safe. For all you know, they could take you behind the next hill and cut your throat.”
“They won’t do that,” Emily replied. “Chris is really nice. She’s on her way back to the village anyway, and she was on the same ship with me when we crashed. We might as well be sisters.”
Faruk frowned. “You can’t do this.”
“This is the reason I came out here,” Emily told him. “This is the best thing that could have happened.”
Faruk threw up his hands and turned away. He snorted, but he didn’t say anything.
“I thought you’d be glad about this,” Emily went on. “I thought you would be relieved to get me off your hands. You didn’t want me to come along, and now I’m leaving with someone else. You can go back to patrolling the border with your hardened warriors.”
He spun around and glared at her. “Is that what you thought?”
“Why wouldn’t I think it?” she asked. “That’s what you said.”
She barely heard him. “That was before.”
She stared at the back of his head, but before she could say anything, he walked away, back to camp. She glanced back toward the stream. Chris and Tur
k were waiting there for her. She ought to walk away and join them now, but she couldn’t. She had to square things with Faruk first. She owed him that much.
She hiked back to camp, but he wasn’t there. She found Marlo, the man who waited for her on the trip. “Where’s Faruk?”
He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “He went up the ravine.”
“What’s he doing?” Emily asked.
“I think he went hunting,” Marlo replied. “He took his reciprocator with him.”
Emily hesitated. She ought to leave him alone, but something pushed her forward. She followed the Marlo’s directions and headed up the draw. She found Faruk peeling the bark off a stick with his blade. “Did I say something to offend you?”
“Not at all,” he replied. “I just wasn’t expecting you to leave so soon. I thought you would stay here for a while.”
“I wasn’t expecting to leave so soon, either,” she replied. “If we hadn’t met those people, I would have been here for months, waiting for someone to show up who could relay our message to the Lycaon. Now they’re offering to take me to the village where my sisters are staying. It seems like a dream come true.”
He snorted. “A dream come true. Yeah.”
She stared at him. “I don’t understand you at all. I was as relieved by this for your sake as for myself. I never wanted to impose on you.”
He shot her a hard look, but as fast, he turned away and went back to whittling. “You never imposed on me.”
“I really appreciate you bringing me out here,” she told him. “I never would have met up with these people if you hadn’t.”
He didn’t look up. “I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
“Is there any way I can thank you?” she asked. “First you saved my life, and now I owe you another debt. If I can do anything to repay it, just say so.”
“You don’t owe me anything,” he replied. “I don’t want your gratitude.”
“What do you want, then?” she asked. “I don’t understand you at all. I don’t understand what I did to make you mad.”
“I’m not mad,” he replied.
Saved by a Bear (Legends of Black Salmon Falls Book 2) Page 66
